•Govt, PENGASSAN, NUPENG officials meet today
Oil workers, under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), began a nationwide strike yesterday. They shut down petroleum depots in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Warri (Delta State) and Port Harcourt (Rivers State) among other states.
But the Federal Government moved yesterday to end the strike. The Ministries of Petroluem Resources and that of Labour and Productivity have invited PENGASSAN and NUPENG officials to a meeting in Abuja today.
The workers are protesting the inability of the government to carry out a Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) on the refineries at Port Harcourt I and II, Warri and Kaduna, and the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Others reasons for the strike, according to PENGASSAN spokesman Babatunde Oke, are: non-implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD); appalling state of roads to refineries and oil depots; casualisation of workers; sack of the secretary of National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers(NUPENG), Port Harcourt Zone, among others.
Oke said the association was left with no option than to call its members out on strike following government’s failure to accede to their demands.
He said: “In Lagos, most depots were shut and there was no loading. At Ejigbo depots, some tankers that loaded in the day were not allowed to move out of the depot because of the dangers of being attacked.
“At the Apapa depot and those owned by Mobil and Oando, there was total compliance, while there was skeletal operation by officials of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at Total Depot. They were stopped in the course of the day.
“In Warri, there was no loading but NUPENG members were seen wearing red to signify their protests. In Kaduna and Abuja, there was total compliance in oil and gas facilities, including the upstream, midstream where the loading bays were shut. There was no loading in Kaduna.’’
According to him, compliance with the union’s directive was impressive as workers effectively barricaded the loading depots.
His words: ‘’ The compliance level was okay because no depot was spared. No tanker was allowed to load yesterday. Those that loaded did so on Sunday night and in the early hours of yesterday for fear of being attacked. We will maintain the status quo, until the government accedes to our demands.”
The PENGASSAN spokesman assured that more people would join in the protest today to ensure full compliance.
The one-day old strike was already taking toll on the people when The Nation went round yesterday. In Lagos, Kaduna, Abuja and other parts of the country, motorists were seen on long queues forcing motorists to hike fares.
Scores of commuters were stranded in Ikorodu, Ojota, Ketu and other parts of Lagos.
Reports from Kaduna said that many filling stations were shut against customers, worsening the queues that emerged at the filling stations on Sunday night when motorists engaged in panic buying in anticipation of fuel scarcity.
By yesterday morning, almost all filling stations in Kaduna have been locked. Only a few opened for business. Kaduna environs were not spared as the two stations on Kachia Road, including the NNPC Mega Station, did not dispense products.
Many motorists who spoke to The Nation lamented. They said the situation has shut down commercial activities.
“The people have taken advantage of this situation to hoard fuel making the black marketers to have field day. I woke up at 6am to look for fuel but I had to settle for the black market where a four-litre container sold for N900,” Abdulhaman Subru said. A litter of petrol sells for N97 at regulated pump price.
Another commuter, Aminu Shehu, said he approached the black market after his search for petrol with the Kaduna metropolis yielded no result. Shehu accused the government of deliberately causing fuel scarcity.
“It is a deliberate scarcity. The government wants to create jobs for black market operators.My neighbour is one of them and he told me they hoard fuel deliberately,” he alleged.
Evangelist Divine Edeh simply described the day as a “terrible waste”. She alleged that most of the filling stations hoard fuel to sell to their special people.
“I have not gone to the office today. I have been moving from one filling station to the other. I didn’t plan for this scarcity. So, it caught me by surprise. The attendants are only selling to their friends. They hang their nozzles and tell other buyers that they don’t have fuel.
“The government should give us relief for this hardship. This is adding more stress to the crisis in this country. This is not what we need at this festive season, she said.
But some stations dispensed fuel at dusk yesterday. According to some workers at the Total Filling Station on Wharf Road, NEPA Roundabout, the station got supply of only 16,000 litres against the usual 32,000 litres. “We just got fuel this afternoon (yesterday) and it is only half of what we used to get, but we are selling and whenever it finishes, we will stop,” an official said.
However, black market operators had a field day as they sold fuel at exorbitant prices. All over the metropolis, black marketers were seen selling to desperate motorists on the streets. One of them who spoke in anonymity told The Nation that they gave attendants N2,000 to get the fuel that they re-sell.
But some of the black marketers blamed the government for the situation.
Bala Musa, who felt the government should be blamed, said, “We hear that the strike will be for three days so we want to see what we can do by then. We don’t have any job and this is the only way that we can make money.”
Muhammed Abubarkar, who dispensed illegally on Muhammadu Buhari Road, denied that they were selling at rooftop price.
He said: “We sell four litres for N600 so we gain only N70. Since morning, I have only made a gain of N700 which I have used to eat. We are only helping people who will not have fuel to move around.”
There was no significant increase in transport fares in Kaduna as the time of filling this report last night.
The gridlock created by the queues in Abuja affected transactions within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Many motorists resorted to panic buying since most of the petrol stations were under lock and key.
Our correspondent discovered that the queues had started building up as early as 5.15am. By noon, virtually all filling stations within the metropolis have been overwhelmed with consumers. They struggled to fill their tanks and buy in plastic containers.
At the Olusengun Obasanjo Way, where there is a cluster of three filling stations – NNPC Mega Station, Oando, and Forte Oil, the queues stretched to about two kilometers on all the access roads leading to the busy area.
From Wuse to Maitama, Asokoro to Area I and Jabi areas, the story was the same causing traffic jam as better parts of the roads were taken over by motorists queuing up to buy fuel.
The black market sale thrived as fuel hawkers were at every strategic junction with gallons of the commodity chasing motorists.
Those who could not withstand the queues patronised the hawkers and bought a 10-litre container for as much as N2000 while motorists who waited on the queues spent long hours to refill.
A motorist, who simply identified himself as Tanimu Suleiman said: “I have been on this queue for more than two hours. This is madness. What shall we call this one again? Is it that fuel is scarce or what is happening?”
The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday assured that no cause for alarm.
In a statement by its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, the NNPC said the three-day strike will not dislocate the robust distribution and sale of fuel.
According to the statement, the Corporation was in talks with the leadership of the unions. The spokesman claimed the unions not to disrupt the fuel supply and distribution system as the strike was basically aimed at addressing the anti-labour issues by some of the International Oil Companies (IOCs).
The statement reads: “The Corporation and its downstream subsidiary, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) also revealed that it has over 32 days stock of petroleum products available for supply across the nation during the Yuletide season and beyond. The Corporation also disclosed 17 additional petroleum laden vessels are at the Lagos Port waiting to discharge to the various depots for onward distribution to members of the public.”
The statement said the NNPC was doing its best to ensure that there was no hitch whatsoever in the supply system.
It called on the public to shun panic buying and product hoarding as that could lead to needless queues and fire outbreaks.
There were hints that officials of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity will today meet with NUPENG and PENGASSAN leaders in Abuja to resolve the ongoing strike.
Oke confirmed the scheduled meeting in a statement.
He said: “The Federal Government has invited the two unions for a meeting in Abuja where the affected stakeholders will be in attendance tomorrow Tuesday by 11am.
“The meeting is at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources.”
